Business | Oil & Gas
IEA to hold talks with experts on surging prices
The International Energy Agency (IEA) will hold a closed-door meeting on March 17 to discuss oil prices with experts from across the industry.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:29 March 14, 2008
Paris: The International Energy Agency (IEA) will hold a closed-door meeting on March 17 to discuss oil prices with experts from across the industry, the Paris-based agency said on Thursday.
"The IEA is holding a round table on oil price formation on Monday 17 March," at its headquarters, the IEA said in an email.
"The meeting is part of ongoing work at the IEA to understand the complex process of price formation," it said, adding the meeting would be closed to the public.
Oil hit a fresh record high of $110.34 a barrel yon Thursday as a weak dollar overshadowed an increase in US crude inventories.
The IEA, which advises 27 rich nations on energy, said experts will be attending representing a broad spectrum of the industry, including financial, trading, producing, refining and economic institutions.
It declined to give a list of participants or an agenda but said the list detailed in media reports was partially wrong.
Media reports said participants would include representatives from ExxonMobil, Total, Repsol YPF, Shell, ConocoPhillips and the International Monetary Fund.
"That list is partially incorrect," Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets division said. "The list included companies that were being kept informed but were not necessarily attending," he said, adding the meeting had been planned since November, when the agency held its last meeting on oil markets.
Investors have rushed into commodities in the past month to hedge against inflation and the softening of the dollar. That has contributed to oil's rally, despite concerns about a recession in the US and rising fuel inventories.
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